Former City Councillor joins B.M.L. protest against City Hall

Remember Mark King? He was the Councillor who dropped the first bombshell when he made allegations of financial mismanagement at City Hall as way back as 2008. King was not allowed to run for the U.D.P. City Council ticket and for most part he has been quiet. That is until this morning when he turned up at the ongoing protest by the Belize Maintenance Limited at City Hall. News Five Delahnie Bain was at the front line of the protest.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting
Former City Councillor Mark King directly accused Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers of improprieties and asked her to resign last August, well before the U.D.P. CITCO convention and subsequent elections.

Mark King, Former City Councillor (August 21st 2008)
“I want two things from Mayor Moya. I want Mayor Moya to resign immediately before the next election and I want Mayor Moya to apologize to the Belizean citizens for stealing tax payer’s money unauthorized by the Belize City Council. When Belizeans voted us in, they voted us in to ensure that we made sure that what happened in City Hall over seventeen years never again happened in City Hall.”

Zenaida Moya, Belize City Mayor (August 21st 2008)
“I know Mark is a bit you know, loony, but I didn’t know to that level. I am laughing because this is—from the onset when we got into office, we’ve been having to deal with the foolishness brought on by Mark King. All his paranoia, all of his whatever is up in—if you call that a brain—is focused on trying to get a constituency of which I feel that if he was bold enough and if he was even respected enough he would have been able to get a constituency.”

That feud ended with King being barred from contesting this year’s Municipal Elections. Well, he was back at City Hall today… but this time King was outside participating in the ongoing protest staged by Belize Maintenance Limited employees.

Mark King
My being out here today is being in solidarity with our Belizean citizens that have not been paid. I think dehn yah dah di poorest of di poorest class of Belizean citizens that we’re looking at, that clean up our streets everyday and if they are not paid, they can’t feed their kids, they have their light being threatened to be cut out, their water and their things are being taken away from courts. They are in a very bad position so I am in solidarity with them today so that they can get paid. I know that a pay day has just gone and I am pleading to all the councillors to please give up your stipends and give it to these people. I’m not asking them to pay B.M.L., I’m asking them to pay the people that have worked already and after that they can do whatever they want with B.M.L. But I’m saying right now Councillors are being paid thirty thousand dollars a month; that’s what their stipends are. That’s what it adds up to.”

So why did King wait a week before making his position public? Was he easing back in the political arena or was it a case of I told you so? King says his intentions are not political and if the B.M.L. employees are not paid, the situation could escalate to much more than a protest.

Mark King
“I wanted to stay out of the issue for the mere fact that I knew that media houses would take it politically because I am a politician and will remain one for the rest of my life. But I decided to come out because when you look at these people they are standing up for their rights, for what they believe in, for what they have worked for. Where is the labour law at this time? I could recall certain employers noh pay one employee and the labour law is right there. Where is the labour law at this time? And if the councillors up there have these people who are the lowest of Belizeans at heart, they are going to take that stipend and pay them. Do we want these people to start picking up guns and start robbing people and then we’re gonna know what a problem really is. And then it contributes to a larger problem on behalf of the government whereby the city can be so nasty and filthy that it will just be a health issue.”

Delahnie Bain for News Five.

More protests are expected this week.